Old cars can make a person feel new

At 77, I can identify with Leonard J. Marino’s fascination with cars since childhood [“The tale of my incredible first ‘old car,’ ” Opinion, Feb. 2]. Growing up in the Bronx, I couldn’t wait for the annual General Motors Motorama, held each fall for several years in the 1950s at the Waldorf Astoria. My friends and I would jump onto the subway to marvel at the chrome on the five GM marques and return home with loads of glitzy, full-color brochures (now long gone).

After retiring in 1996, I bought a 1941 Oldsmobile 76 Dynamic Cruiser while on vacation in Maine and had it transported home. I did the mechanical things, won several prizes at car shows and sold it in 2013 because the “bloom was off the rose,” thinking old cars were a thing of the past. Well, perusing old-car ads about a year later, I bought a beautiful low-mileage time capsule, a limited edition 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz from a seller in Maryland and have been enjoying it ever since.

Fortunately, the car has required little mechanical repair. It reminds me of my childhood fascination with cars, reviving those thrilling GM Motorama memories.

Paul Jacobs,

Huntington

Can a leader emerge from the morass?

It’s a mystery how the American electorate can maintain emotional health, friendships of another political color and faith in our democracy. The ugliness of political competition, congressional misbehavior, party rhetoric, mistruths and election tampering is not the America I once loved. It’s a pathetic scene, no matter which party or what issues a voter supports. Our choices are limited by the rhetoric between capitalism and social democracy. Exhume the MP, please — the Moderate Politician!

Virtually every candidate, right, left and center, is at least a millionaire with a smattering of billionaires. Millions and millions of dollars have gone into this campaign cycle. How can the American voter weigh the real truth?

Don’t we want a government that analyzes the needs of all of the electorate, a leader who assigns cabinet members from the elite in the subject area, a chief who is cognizant of America’s future, one who makes decisions contrasting the past with present global conditions? Shouldn’t that person be a soul searcher on foreign policy, a healing voice during catastrophe, and a supporter of nonprejudicial domestic programs? Will that person emerge before Nov. 3?

Kathleen Young,

Blue Point

Many are saying forgive and forget

I get it that all of the Democratic candidates want to be president. What I don’t understand is the need to throw mud at other viable candidates for sometimes decades-old missteps in hopes that it will stick. What do they hope to accomplish when, unfortunately, much of the public has shown it is willing to accept as normal the old and recent indiscretions and possible crimes of our current president because his supporters focus on what his policies will mean for them in the future?

Democratic candidates need to stick to the issues. Unless they can show voters a brighter, more prosperous and civil future, we will face four more years of President Donald Trump.

Ruth Deller,

Old Bethpage

Trump, name-calling and pardons

I see President Donald Trump is picking on Mike Bloomberg by calling him “Mini-Mike.” A childish thing he constantly does, a sure sign of a bully and insecure person, he called Jerry Nadler “Fat Jerry,” Maxine Waters and others “Low IQ,” and Joe Biden “Sleepy Joe.”

Many of us could be called those names, I assume Trump has no respect for anyone shorter, thinner, or having a lower IQ.

Well, I have no respect for a president who thinks name calling is funny.

Bob Stonelli,

Sayville

First, candidate Donald Trump said Mexico was paying for the wall. They never will. Now President Donald Trump said it will be paid for with “redemption money.” Huh?

It’s really from the military budget, or taxpayers, and don’t forget China is paying for the tariffs. No, taxpayers again. And he said America invented the wheel. Mesopotamia did 5,500 years ago. He said we have to protect Thomas Edison. He died in 1931, and Tesla builds beautiful rockets, all recorded.

And by the way, he has the nuclear codes. Do we really want four more years of this self-proclaimed genius?

Richard Block,

Riverhead

Regarding “Likely Trump will pardon Stone” [Letters, Feb. 24], I took the time to research pardons, and commuted and rescinded sentences.

Presidents Jimmy Carter, 566 in four years; Ronald Reagan, 406 in eight years, George H.W. Bush, 77 in four years; Bill Clinton, 459 in eight years; George W. Bush, 200 in eight years; Barack Obama 1,715 in eight years; and Donald Trump, 25 in three years.

While Roger Stone, age 67, and his wife were sleeping, the early-morning raid on his home with guns drawn abruptly woke them up, and he was put under arrest for a nonviolent crime. I say that that was unfair treatment. I would hope that Stone’s sentence would be commuted. Add his name to the “lengthy” list — 25 — of pardons, commutations and rescinded sentences by Trump.

Eva Mortak,

Coram